Sunday, September 28, 2008

Touching Base with EI

I called our Early Intervention service coordinator this past week, and we talked for over 45 minutes. She said she was suprised at our pediatrician's mention of Isaiah possibly being on the spectrum. She said it was because he didn't display all the symptoms that autistic kids present, which confused me. I thought that's what PPDNOS was- those who don't have ALL the symptoms, but who do show some. When I brought that up, she said that was just a catch-all, and didn't seem to even consider it a possibility.

She did give me some suggestions on things to do now. One was getting a beanbag chair, and setting up an area he can retreat to when he's getting anxious and overwhelmed. Also, a few things such as squishing him with pillows, and big bear hugs. I asked about maybe adding occupational therapy, since her suggestions were of the OT sort. We're going to talk about it on the 9th, at our next session with her and the speech therapist.

She also mentioned that her opinions were just that- HER opinions. And she really didn't have *too* much advice in regards to his "everything-has-to-be-in-a-certain-order-or-he-freaks" behavior , since she had very little experience with that. She told me that I always have the options of seeing the developmental pediatrician, like our ped. recommended. But suggested waiting 6 months or so before making that decision.

For the past year, I've been either been feeling as if I'm not doing enough for Isaiah, or I'm over-reacting, making something out of nothing. And... I still feel that way. *sigh* This parenting gig is tough. :(

2 comments:

I have gotten so many good ideas for my child from The Out-of-Sync Child. Not that I'm saying your child is not in sync, it's just that many of the ideas she mentioned are in that book, and there are hundreds more. (You may already have the book in which case ignore me!)

The ideas are fun, sensory activities that most children love! We've stuffed futon covers with cheap pillows to make crash pads, crafted a spinning swing in our back yard out of a large toy bucket, etc. Our OT is helping us with our plans and we are seeing improvements.

Oh my gosh! I have been meaning to ask you about this from an earlier post and forgot. We have been going through this drama with my son. The best thing we did was see the developmental pediatrician and then child psychiatry. From what I understand if he is diagnosed with PDD even if it is NOS, consider him on the spectrum. The important thing is to get him the services he needs. My Dev Ped said "If you want to call my son a martian, call him a martian if that gets him the help he needs." By law, most of the EI people cannot suggest a diagnosis because they aren't drs. But we trust them to give us feedback because they are the professionals. Idon't know all the things your son does but it seems like there is no reason to wait to see more drs when you are concerned. The earlier you can identify all his needs and start therapy, the better. My son is 2 1/2 now and was diagnosed in May. He receives daily skills training and monthly speech, OT and weekly special ed visits. Next we have to start the evals for spec ed preschool. What a crazy roller coaster!

There are a lot of differing opinions but I think one is pretty consistent and that is early intervention is key. Waiting to see a dev ped for 6 months seems weird to me. CHildren are young for a very short time.Those are some of my opinions. I don't know everything but have been learning a lot and some of the best advice the dev ped and child psych told me were to learn as much as I can about autism (his diagnosis) and prepare to fight every step of the way.